Imperial Vizier Zor'lok Strategy Guide
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Abilities
Inhale
Imperial Vizier Zor'lok takes a deep breath, increasing the damage of his Exhale by 50% per stack. When Exhale is cast with 3 or more stacks of Inhale present, all stacks of Inhale are consumed.
Son of the Empress
Zor'lok raises his voice in praise to the empress, dealing damage to all non-mantid who can hear the song until he is engaged in melee combat.
Convert
Charms a target to fight on the side of Imperial Vizier Zor'lok. Charmed targets inflict 150% more damage and have their maximum health increased 150%. Reducing a charmed target to 50% health frees them from the charm.
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Exhale
Imperial Vizier Zor'lok shouts at a random player for 6 sec. The first player between the caster and the target will absorb the brunt of this attack. Exhale inflicts Physical damage to the victim and stuns the initial target of the spell.
Force and Verve
Imperial Vizier Zor'lok creates a violent burst of sound, inflicting 138750 physical damage to all players every 1 seconds for 10 sec.
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Strategy
This is a two phase fight consisting of platforms (shown below). In phase 1 the raid will deal with the boss on various platforms, each with unique abilities, and in phase 2 the boss will inherit all abilities and it will become a burn phase.
The boss has two main abilities he uses during the entire fight. First, he has Inhale. This is a stacking buff he periodically casts that buffs his second ability, Exhale, by 50% per stack.
For Exhale, the boss randomly selects a target and screams at the player for 5 seconds, dealing 27.5k (43.5k) damage per second. The first player between the boss and the targeted player takes additional damage from the attack. If no one is in the path, then the targeted player will most likely die. Also, the damage dealt is increased the farther away the players are from the boss. This means the targeted player should get close to the boss, and a tank should be between the player and the boss to take the extra damage.If the boss has 3 or more stacks of Inhale when this goes off, all stacks are removed.
For Exhale, the boss randomly selects a target and screams at the player for 5 seconds, dealing 27.5k (43.5k) damage per second. The first player between the boss and the targeted player takes additional damage from the attack. If no one is in the path, then the targeted player will most likely die. Also, the damage dealt is increased the farther away the players are from the boss. This means the targeted player should get close to the boss, and a tank should be between the player and the boss to take the extra damage.If the boss has 3 or more stacks of Inhale when this goes off, all stacks are removed.
Phase 1-Platforms
As mentioned, the room contains three platforms: left, right, and top. During Phase 1, the boss will start on one of these platforms at random. Each platform gives the boss a new ability unique to that platform. The raid must be on one of these platforms, for the lower area is covered with Pheromones of Zeal, which does 20k (30k) nature damage every second and silences anyone in the area. The boss moves to a different platform after losing 20% health (i.e., 80%, 60%, and 40%).
Each time he moves to a different platform, he will begin channeling Song of the Empress. This does 150k (200k) damage every second to the entire raid, likely causing a wipe. This ability is cancelled when the boss takes melee damage so ensure that your raid moves platforms quickly.
Each time he moves to a different platform, he will begin channeling Song of the Empress. This does 150k (200k) damage every second to the entire raid, likely causing a wipe. This ability is cancelled when the boss takes melee damage so ensure that your raid moves platforms quickly.
Left Platform
The main ability on this platform is Attenuation. The boss will spawn Sonic Rings that spiral away from the boss in a variety of directions. The rings are similar to those in the Atramedes encounter except here they are more numerous. Hitting a ring will cause Sonic Ring, which does 120k (150k) damage if a player hits it. Avoiding the rings is manageable and a must since they cause unnecessary damage. There are two different patterns associated with the rings. Each pattern forces the raid to either move clockwise or counter clockwise in a circular motion. If this is done correctly, no one will ever get hit by the rings. Videos showing how to dodge attenuation are below in the heroic section of this guide.
Right Platform
The main ability on this platform is Force and Verve. The boss will cast this in 2 seconds and hit everyone with Force and Verve, causing 120k (150k) damage to the raid every 1.5 seconds for 10 seconds. To reduce the damage taken by the raid, three Noise Cancelling Zones will appear in the room, within 20 yards of the boss. Getting into one of these zones, provides the buff Noice Cancelling, which reduces the damage taken by 40%.
Note that only 9 players can benefit from a single zone. This means you should organize the raid into three groups to go into the zones and assign defensive/healing cooldowns. Note that the first zone will always be directly on top of the boss, of melee DPS and tanks will want to occupy that one. The second group can take the next one and the third will take the final one. This will help to avoid confusion about who goes where.
Note that only 9 players can benefit from a single zone. This means you should organize the raid into three groups to go into the zones and assign defensive/healing cooldowns. Note that the first zone will always be directly on top of the boss, of melee DPS and tanks will want to occupy that one. The second group can take the next one and the third will take the final one. This will help to avoid confusion about who goes where.
Top Platform
The ability on this platform is Convert. At least the main tank and another random player will be mind controlled, deal 100% (150%) more damage, and have 100% (150%) more health. The players have a chance to be freed from the mind control each time he/she takes spell damage. Otherwise, the players are automatically freed at 50% health remaining. Caster DPS should focus on the mind controlled players.
Phase 2-Burn Phase
Phase 2 begins when the boss reaches 40%. At this time the boss heads towards the middle of the room and casts Inhale Pheromones of Zeal. This gives him a buff which increases his damage by 10% and haste by 20%. He'll also pull the raid into the middle, so there's no need to run down there.
The boss will gain the abilities from all three platforms: Attenuation, Force and Verve, and Convert. While burning the boss, the raid will need to be aware of all three abilities at the same time. and manage them accordingly.
The boss will gain the abilities from all three platforms: Attenuation, Force and Verve, and Convert. While burning the boss, the raid will need to be aware of all three abilities at the same time. and manage them accordingly.
Heroic Strategy
The sequence of events is set on heroic mode. First, the boss will always start on the right side, so the raid can position themselves on the right platform ahead of time. The first key difference is the Noise Cancelling Zones for Force and Verve work a little differently. Instead of three zones spawning, there will be four. Each zone can have only 7 players inside of it. The raid will need to pre-assign who will go in which zone. Note that the first zone will always spawn on top of the boss. Ideally, the melee DPS will be in this zone.
When the boss gets to 80%, the next significant change happens. As the boss moves to the left platform, he will cast Echoing. This spawns an Echo of Force and Verve on the right platform. The raid needs to kill this add before moving to the left platform. However, the boss cannot be ignored. Therefore, the second tank and 2 healers will head over to the left platform, while the raid finishes off the Echo.
The main challenge is there will be one Force and Verve before the Echo dies. When this happens, the Echo will place two zones on his platform and two zones on the left platform. Since the right platform currently has 23 players, 9 players will have to stay out of the zones and survive Force and Verve. To remedy this, the raid will assign 9 players who can use cooldowns and immunities to survive. The healers on the left platform will need to get into one of the two zones, and the tank will need to use cooldowns. Once the echo has been killed (The echo should never cast more than one force and verve) all the players will go to the attenuation platform. This normally happens just after the boss casts attenuation so players running (or using warlock portals) to the next platform must be careful to avoid orbs on the way.
When the boss gets to 80%, the next significant change happens. As the boss moves to the left platform, he will cast Echoing. This spawns an Echo of Force and Verve on the right platform. The raid needs to kill this add before moving to the left platform. However, the boss cannot be ignored. Therefore, the second tank and 2 healers will head over to the left platform, while the raid finishes off the Echo.
The main challenge is there will be one Force and Verve before the Echo dies. When this happens, the Echo will place two zones on his platform and two zones on the left platform. Since the right platform currently has 23 players, 9 players will have to stay out of the zones and survive Force and Verve. To remedy this, the raid will assign 9 players who can use cooldowns and immunities to survive. The healers on the left platform will need to get into one of the two zones, and the tank will need to use cooldowns. Once the echo has been killed (The echo should never cast more than one force and verve) all the players will go to the attenuation platform. This normally happens just after the boss casts attenuation so players running (or using warlock portals) to the next platform must be careful to avoid orbs on the way.
Pard Tip: The tank on the attenuation platform will not be under a bubble and will require lots of healing. Healers on that platform should use major throughput CDs as well as externals. A Paladin can use Blessing of Protection on themself and the other healer to trivialize the force and verve.
The greatest challenge of this encounter is surviving Attenuation. This is because the boss will spawn Sonic Pules, in addition to the Sonic Rings, as shown below.
These pulses move out in waves of varying speed. Hitting even a single one will cause the player to take damage from Sonic Pulse, which is around 400k physical damage likely killing non tank players. To avoid getting hit, each player will need to recognize that there is a pattern, depending on whether the raid needs to move left or fight. For the purposes of this strategy, we will assume that the player is facing towards the boss, and the boss is facing away from the platform stairs. The suggested positioning is shown below.
The following video shows how I, as a ranged healer dodge the attenuation when moving left. Note that melee will often stay near the boss and find the opening at a different point that I do, however, the movement once you are "in between" the attenuation waves becomes a simple clockwise motion. Snapshots of entry points are shown in the normal mode section of this guide.
The following video shows how I, as a ranged healer dodge the attenuation when moving right. For the right side the melee use the dame opening as me but sometimes must move slightly left to avoid the first green orb before moving into the counter clockwise attenuation dance.
When the boss hits 60%, he'll move to the top platform and cast Echoing again. This time, he'll leave an Echo of Attenuation on the left platform. Ideally, all ranged DPS will move to the top platform, and melee DPS will stay behind. However, if your raid does not have enough ranged DPS (at least 9), then 1-3 melee DPS should go to the top as well. This is because Convert can be extremely dangerous if the mind-controlled players are not CCed or broken out quickly. The melee DPS staying behind will need to continue dodging Attenuation until the Echo is dead. Note that the raid at the top platform will still need to dodge a few Disks and/or Pulses.
Pard Tip: Converted players will instantly use CCs, it is important for players with AOE fears/stuns to use them up before convert is cast. Players with single target fears and stuns will then need to lock down converted players quickly.
When the boss hits 40%, the next phase of the fight will begin. However, the positioning will need to be significantly different since he will spawn an Echo of Attenuation shortly after beginning the last phase. This makes this portion of the fight extremely hectic and easily the most difficult portion of the encounter. To handle this, the tanks will move the boss to one of the corners of the room, as shown in the image below. He will cast Attenuation shortly into the phase. The raid will simply need to move far away and move back in when it is clear. Then, he'll follow up with Force and Verve. The raid should treat it the same way on the right platform, except the tanks will move the boss farther into the corner if possible.
After Force and Verve, the boss will immediately spawn an Echo of Attenuation next to him, and he'll also cast Convert. This means the raid needs to stack up shortly before Force and Verve is over, so the raid can break the mind-controlled players extremely quickly. While the raid is doing this, the boss tank will move the boss to one of the far corners, and the second tank and 1-2 healers will stay behind to handle the Echo. The boss and the Echo must be far apart to make dodging both Attenuations possible. In This phase DPS should ignore the echo and only focus on the boss.
Pard Tip: Bloodlust is used when the raid is stacked for the first attenuation in phase 2. This gives the most DPS uptime (for our group) on the boss.
The hardest part of the remainder of the fight will be when the boss will casts Force and Verve. The raid can handle the first Force and Verve as they would on the first platform. Cooldowns from your assigned tank healers are suggested here since they won't be with the group for the rest of the fight. For the remaining Force and Verve, cooldowns, both defensive and healing, will need to be used to keep everyone alive. There should be no more than 3 in the second phase of the fight. The second tank and his/her healers will need to make sure they can dodge the Echo's Attenuation, and the healers need to get into one of the two zones for Force and Verve in time. There should be enough room in the corner to dodge the Disks and Pulses.
Because the boss will be in a corner during each Attenuation, the raid will simply run to another corner and let the boss come to him. If DPS is solid, the berserk timer will not be an issue. The primary issue is staying alive. This means players will need to constantly be aware of the attenuation orbs as well as survive the force and verves. If you can master this you should have a kill.